The Assassin
by avrovulcan
Summary: Someone makes an attempt on Waverly's life, will Napoleon and Illya get to the bottom of it all? Part of my Illya and Rebecca series. Originally written for the picfic challenge on LJ.


"We're under lockdown Mr. Solo. We need you here immediately," the voice insisted urgently over the communicator.

Illya and Napoleon were finishing a routine courier assignment, THRUSH had been quiet of late and they were both going stir crazy with no real missions to get their teeth into, so when the mundane microdot retrieval came up they both grabbed it, even though they were over qualified for the job.

"What's happened to warrant that, Colwyn?"

"Err… There's been an attempt on Mr. Waverly's life."

The news hit both Kuryakin and Solo like a speeding train.

"Is he alright?" Napoleon asked with concern.

Waverly was in Medical; not for himself, but for the agent who had saved his life. Voices in the corridor alerted him to the arrival of his two top agents. Patting the lax hand lying on the bed with tenderness, he rose and went to meet Solo and Kuryakin.

"I'm glad to see you're alright sir," the American said with relief.

"Yes, thank you Mr. Solo."

"Sir, I understand another agent was injured in the incident?"

"Yes Mr. Kuryakin, you're correct….."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
**Two hours earlier.**

Alexander was discussing the contents of a file with one of his agents; it contained the results of a recent interrogation of a THRUSH captive.

As he crossed to the carafe to pour some more coffee, he heard raised voices from his secretary's office. Almost as soon as the argument started it stopped, expecting his intercom to come to life, he was surprised when it remained quiet and the door opened instead.

However, the newcomer was not his secretary, but an operative from Section 3.

"Mr. err.. Thanders_, _what is the meaning of this?" Waverly asked, displeasure in his voice, "and where is Miss Rogers?" he enquired as he tried to look past the figure standing in the doorway.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
**Two hours fifteen minutes earlier**.

Lance Thanders was nervous, he had a job to do and there was no way he could get out of it, he'd tried for days to think of a way to avoid having to carry out what he knew would be an unpleasant task. It was useless, THRUSH had his wife and daughter, and if he didn't go ahead he knew they'd kill the two most precious people in his life.

He was warned against alerting anyone within UNCLE; there was a mole within the organization and they would be watching him. He would be told who the target would be and he was expected to carry out the assassination. Once the job was done his family would be released.

This morning when he'd arrived, an envelope was waiting for him on his desk, the instructions contained within told him his target was Mr. Waverly himself.

Lance sat with his head in his hands and felt nauseous; how could he be expected to kill the Old Man? How had this happened to him? He'd been a loyal UNCLE agent for over six years; he never dreamt he'd ever be in a situation like this. He wished he knew why THRUSH had picked on him or how they'd found out about his family, he wasn't even a Section two agent; that he could have understood, but even in security he was a pretty low rank.

'_Maybe that's why,_' he thought to himself, '_I'm just a nobody, an easy target. I have no choice, I can't let my family die._'

Sighing he stood, and with a heavy heart, went to carry out his instructions.

He approached Lisa Rogers office and tried to pull himself together, he couldn't afford to alert Mr. Waverly's secretary that something was wrong or he'd fail. Looking around, he saw several agents and a cleaner all getting on with whatever they were doing, no one took any notice of him. Any one of these, he knew, could be the mole, maybe he should have told Section two the trouble he was in? But, no, he couldn't risk Marie and Sheena's lives.

Taking a few deep breaths, he strode into the office.

"I need to see Mr. Waverly, please."

"I'm sorry, but you'll need to wait, he's in a meeting at the moment," Lisa replied.

"You don't understand, this is really important, I've got to see him right away."

"I can't let you in. If you tell me what you need to see him about, I'll see what I can do."

"I can't tell you, it's between me and him."

Before long both voices were raised as they argued, finally Thanders had had enough, and after a brief tussle, knocked Lisa out cold.

"I'm sorry, I didn't want to do that, but you left me no choice," he said to the inert form.

He stepped forward to activate the automatic door to The Old Man's office and stood on the threshold, stopping the door from closing. His attention was entirely focused on the man before him.

Behind him a silent observer stealthily slipped into Lisa's domain.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The agent in the room with the chief kept still and silent as the drama unfolded. The newcomer was so wound up he hadn't registered someone else was in the room.

"Mr. err.. Thanders_, _what is the meaning of this?"

"I'm sorry I have no choice, I have to do it." His voice started to crack as he thought about the consequences of not following through. He pulled himself together and drew his gun from its holster, pointing it at Waverly.

"Now Mr. Thanders, I'm sure we can resolve any problems you may have without resorting to shooting anyone," the head of Section one spoke calmly and slowly advanced.

"No, I have to do this, the lives of my family depend on it, you can't stop me."

Lance closed his eyes and squeezed the trigger, just as the third occupant in the room flew in front of the Old Man, knocking him out the way and taking the slug herself. Twisting around as she fell, the section two operative fired off a round at Thanders and hit him in the shoulder, the impact throwing Lance to the ground, knocking himself out as his head contacted the floor.

As silently as they entered the observer slipped away, believing they hadn't been seen.

Alarms were ringing out and several Enforcement agents came running in.

"Mr. Waverly, are you alright Sir?"

"Yes, yes, I am fine, but we have a man down, alert Medical immediately," the chief knelt by his downed agent and put pressure on the bullet wound to the chest, "hold on my dear, help is on its way."

Eyes flickered open, "are you hurt sir?" The question was asked in a whisper, "where is Mr. Thanders?"

"I am fine Miss Andrews, and do not worry yourself about our would-be assassin he will be taken care of."

Rebecca nodded and slipped into unconsciousness.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Rebecca Andrews was still unconscious, she'd undergone surgery to remove the bullet from her chest, luckily it hadn't caused too much damage, but it would still be a while before she'd be back on active duty.

Illya sat next to his lover, holding her hand and waiting for her to come around, Napoleon and Alexander were also in the room.

"I'm afraid we have another mole in our midst," Waverly stated.

"If you do not mind me asking, how do you know?" Illya queried.

"A preliminary interrogation of our would-be assassin informed us."

"Who is the prisoner?" Napoleon asked.

"Mr Thanders of section three."

Illya looked up, "I would like to request permission to question him please sir."

"I suspected as much Mr. Kuryakin, but I think we have gleaned as much information from him as we can. He regrets what he has done completely and is willingly assisting us. He is as much a victim in this as Miss Andrews."

Solo looked to his boss, his expression curious, "Oh, how?"

"His family is being held by THRUSH, he was told if he didn't carry out the task, they were going to be killed."

Napoleon looked back to his agent lying on the bed, then to his partner, "His family is in real danger, we either need to find this mole or his family, and fast; if THRUSH has been notified, then they could already be dead. Let's hope they don't yet know."

"How are we going to find out who it is, this will be like finding a… a….. pin in a haystack?"

"Needle, Illya, it's a needle in a haystack." Solo corrected absentmindedly as he ran his hands over his face and sighed, "I don't know."

"I…. I think I saw them," Rebecca opened her eyes and winced as she moved.

"Good to see you, _vozlyublennyy_; take it easy, try not to move too much," Illya said with concern as he saw the pain she was in reflected in her eyes.

"Do you know who it was?" Napoleon enquired.

As they were talking a nurse came into the room and adjusted Becca's IV line.

"While I was on the floor …..I saw someone….. in Lisa's office… just before I passed out."

"Did you recognise them?" Mr. Waverly asked as he approached the bed.

"Yes, it was…aarrghhh," Rebecca writhed in incredible pain, her body spasming and the monitors shrill alarms rang out.

Illya immediately hit the call button summoning help, while Napoleon noticed the nurse; instead of returning to help she'd hastened through the exit.

Solo sprinted after her, catching her arm and bringing her to a halt. He saw she was wearing a wig and her uniform was ill fitting, indicating she wasn't a nurse at all.

"Get off me," she demanded as she struggled to get free of his grip.

"Who are you?"

"Your worst nightmare," she grinned, "it was nice meeting you, goodbye."

"Oh no you don't, you're not getting away with it that easily." The CEA forced her mouth open, locating the false tooth with the cyanide capsule and removing it.

"You can start by telling me what you have given Rebecca, then you will tell me everything else I want to know; or I know a certain Russian who would like to get the information out of you, and I can promise you it won't be pleasant."

The colour drained from her face and her shoulders drooped as she realised there was no way out, and whatever UNCLE did to her wouldn't be as bad as what THRUSH would do. Resigned to her fate she answered the CEA's first question.

The medical staff were busy working on Becca when Napoleon informed them of the drug used. An antidote was administered and things started to calm down, soon she was stabilized again and the emergency was over.

After making sure his agent was recovering, Solo took his prisoner to the interrogation room and obtained all the answers he wanted. The woman herself was a cleaner, a low enough position that she drew no attention, but it also gave her access to most of headquarters, it was a perfect cover.

She hadn't yet contacted THRUSH so they didn't know the plan had been foiled, she was instructed to inform them the assignment had been successful and for the family to be released.

An hour later Lance was joyfully reunited with his family before undergoing de-training, he and his wife and daughter were given new lives and identities and relocated, the villains involved were safely in custody and Rebecca was on the way to making a full recovery.

Waverly sat in his office, he felt old and tired; it had been one hell of a day. He'd had an attempt on his life and nearly lost a good agent, he'd discovered there'd been a mole in his organization and THRUSH were sinking to new levels to try and eliminated UNCLE.

He wondered if he was getting too old for this job, but he also thought of the days when things went well, and what else would he do anyway? No, he'd put this all down to experience, review the security protocols and carry on foiling THRUSH.


End file.
